


PARENTHOOD // PERCICO

by vnreqvitxd



Series: Expecting [2]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Domestic, M/M, Mpreg, Parenthood, Postpartum Depression, Unplanned Pregnancy, the gods are assholes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-18
Updated: 2020-12-11
Packaged: 2021-02-26 09:21:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 20,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21847366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vnreqvitxd/pseuds/vnreqvitxd
Summary: The sequal is finally hear! Come along on the journey as Nico and Percy raise their child together, while maintaining a new relationship with each other. Parenthood's usually hard, but it's even harder when that child has the power to destroy Earth as we know it.
Relationships: Jason Grace/Unknown, Nico di Angelo/Percy Jackson
Series: Expecting [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1033172
Comments: 31
Kudos: 51





	1. Chapter 1

//blame the lateness of this chapter on alex. (im just kidding, ilysm)//

“It’s quite sad, isn’t it?” Zeus spoke, his voice not actually showing any signs of pity.

“I’d say so,” Apollo agreed. See, to bond with his father, Apollo would often times rile him up with a conversation about mortals. About their sorrowful lives that will end, and then they will be forgotten. He was quite delighted when Zeus had started up this conversation though, not him.

Delighted, not surprised.

The news of Zoella had began to spread, and was quite frankly, the talk up in Olympus constantly. There wasn’t a single person who hadn’t heard or said one thing about the new baby. It would range from the opinions, rather if it was good or bad, or they’d even talk about predictions of what would happen.

One time Ares had predicted one outcome, and let’s just say Florida had to pay the price. A gods’ awful hurricane stormed through it, leaving mortals without power for weeks upon weeks. Many people still aren’t on their feet.

Zeus will never be able to understand his brother’s infatuation with mortals and their lives- specifically his mortal family. They’ll be gone so soon! Zeus would always say, but his brother was having none of it. Saying they’ve “done more for him then his godly family” has ever done. Ridiculous.

“And what’s worse is that they think the worst parts over!” Zeus laughed. “They have no idea,”

Apollo was just about to chime in, because you know, bonding but Poseidon interrupted. “There has to be something! It’s cruel! To watch a child slowly.. slowly-” He couldn’t bring himself to say it.

“We’ve talked about this a many of times, Brother!” Zeus boomed, “We will not interfere in mortal affairs anymore!”

“You say that because it’s convenient for you right now! But when something comes along, you’ll be the first one to interfere just to make your life easier! So please, just let me help them, or warn them, something, I can’t sit here and watch,”

“You can and you will,” Zeus said. “No exceptions,”

“Brother-”

“No!” He shut down. “There is nothing you could say to change my mind,”

“You’re one sick fuck, you know that, right?” Poseidon said.

“Oh, how will I sleep at night,”

“Hopefully with one eye open,” Poseidon said, the serious tone making the room so quiet you could hear a needle drop.

“You’re way too invested into this, so much as to turn on your own brother?” Zeus said, completely unphased by the obvious threat.

“I’d rather turn on you than my son,”

“Not with this nonsense again!” Zeus was growing increasingly frustrated. “What is it with you and that boy?”

“I can’t have anymore, and unlike you, I don’t stick it wherever and hope for the best-”

“Poseidon,” Hera said, a warning, letting him know he was going too far at that point, and if he continued, he’d have everyone against him.

“You’re being unjust,” Was the last word the sea god spoke before sinking back down into his chair. “It’s just wrong,”

“Are you done now?” Apollo said. “I was having a conversation with my father,”

“Apollo, please shut up,” Artemis said. “It’s not you he likes talking to it’s the conversation topic he likes,”

“That’s not true! Tell her it’s not true!” Apollo said, turning to his dad.

“Hm? What, Oh, look,” Zeus said, pointing to the mist screen at the table, showcasing the new family of three. “Look at them running around like chickens trying to care for a baby with such a short expiration date,”

Everyone cringed, even Apollo, and truth be told, he was a little upset at the di Angelo kid for doing what he did to William, but hearing the term Expiration Date described for a human, you’d be insane not to cringe.

Artemis gave her brother a look of ‘I told you so’ before also directing her attention to the screen. “It is cruel, Zeus,” She said.

“Well, darling-” Zeus said, and Artemis cringed at the word. “-What would we do? The power she contains is going to tear her apart. And what should we do, tell them? Let them know that she doesn’t have long until her powers manifest and literally destroy her from the inside? That would be a lot less fun, now wouldn’t it?”

“It’d be more humane, and fun isn’t a word I would ever use to describe this situation. She’s a young girl, one with a future. It’s wrong,” Artemis said, trying not to become frustrated.

Zeus laughed. “And why would you say ‘One with a future?’ We all know she doesn’t have long,”

Artemis avoided Apollo’s eyes. Apollo stared at the ground.

“What?” Zeus’s voice was sharp.

Neither of the two said anything.

“Clearly no one heard me…so I will ask again: What?”

“It’s nothing, but any time she has is a future, we should do something, for all of them, the child and the parents,”

“Who have saved your life on multiple accounts,” It was Hestia who spoke up. She was sitting cross-legged in front of a fireplace. She was calm and collected. She hardly spoke, but when she did, it was because she believed strongly in it.

“Clearly I need to restate what I’ve been saying all along, since apparently no one can see eye-to-eye with me. We will not interfere with the child of Percy and Nico. We will not interfere with Nico and Percy. And if I find out anyone does, they’ll be banished from Olympus and sent to the depths of Tartarus to rot for eternity, no exceptions,”

For the second time that day, the room fell silent. Even Apollo didn’t dare speak.

“Well, I think I have to excuse myself,” Poseidon said, slowly standing up.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Zeus said as Poseidon made his way out. “So sensitive, this one, what are you gonna do? Go throw a temper tantrum and go drown some tropical islands?”

Poseidon said nothing, and simply left, not being able to bear another word from his brother.

“I think I’m going to leave as well,”

“You’re not mad at me are you?” Zeus asked. It sounded more like a threat than a question. "You all act like I'm the bad guy!"

“No,” Artemis lied. “I just have other things to do rather than talking about …” She trailed off her sentence and began following her uncle, who was quite a bit in front of her. “the death of a child,” she said, leaving the rest of the Olympians with those words.

Because that’s what they were doing. They were discussing the death of a child.

“Uncle!” Artemis called once out of earshot. Poseidon turned around, his expression blank, however, his eyes showing a hurricane of emotions. “Please don’t fret, and tell your brother, Hades, this as well,” Artemis knew the King of the Underworld was worried about this. He messed up with his son many of times, and he just wanted to help his son on this one thing, but everyone felt so hopeless. 

“No offense, but I don’t exactly think telling him to “not fret” will work. We’ve been trying not to fret for a while now-”

“I know this, but trust me,”

Poseidon looked at her skeptically.

“Just trust me,” She said, before she walked off, leaving her Uncle to think on those words. 

"Trust me," She mumbled to herself as she set off to leave Olympus for awhile. 

//Y'all got no clue what this book has in store and it shows//

-RF


	2. getting adjusted

That was probably the 100th diaper Nico had gone through in the span of two weeks, however it could be worse. Zoella could have not had the super supportive grandparents, Paul and Sally, who dropped off almost everything they could ever need. Yes, they had had diapers, clothes, and bottles, but they had severely underestimated how many they actually needed. 

“There you go,” Nico smiled, however it was weak, and his voice was groggy. He probably hadn’t gotten more than two hours of sleep here and there for the entirety of Zoella being home. Nico picked Zoella up off the changing table and held her close to his chest as he shuffled his way to the bed, making sure not to step on anything and die. Okay, that was a /little/ bit of an exaggeration, but even so. Better safe than sorry. 

He leaned against his pillows so he was sitting up, still holding Zoella. She was still crying, which meant the diaper change clearly wasn’t enough.

“Sorry it took so long,” Percy said as he walked into their room, a bottle in his hand. “I dropped the first one,” He walked over to the bed and carefully sat down next to Nico, handing him the bottle. 

Nico couldn’t help but laugh. “Good job,”

“Thanks,” Percy said, a sleepy smile forming on his face. “I knew you’d be proud of me,”

Nico chuckled as he tried to get Zoella to take the bottle. She was actually really good at taking a bottle. Nico assumed it was the special formula she drank. It was similar to the stuff she had at the hospital, with a few minor adjustments. Annabeth said as she got older, they would need to find a way to keep her healthy, because this recipe they were using wouldn’t last forever. It had to change almost every other week according to Annabeth. And lucky for them, Annabeth was determined to get everything worked out. 

And, like usual, she took to the bottle relatively quickly, and the crying turned into sucking sounds. They stayed like that for a while, basking in the comfortable silence. Nico blamed the lack of talking on their pure exhaustion. 

Zoella was halfway done with the bottle when she started drinking slower, indicating that she would be done soon. Nico wasn’t exactly looking forward too. Another thing Zoella didn’t do (on top of the no sleeping) was that she wasn’t a fan of pacifiers, so when she was done eating, there was a fifty-fifty chance that she would either cry, or nap (unless gods forbid one of them set her down). 

It was a few more minutes before she was done, some of the formula dripping onto her chin once she had spit it out. Nico grabbed the soft rag that he had next to his bed to wipe his daughters face. “There ya go,” Nico braced himself for the tears and screaming, but luckily, she didn’t. She just looked up at him and then slowly began closing her eyes. 

Nico took a deep, relieved breath. “I don’t know what I would have done if she started crying, I might have joined her at this point,” 

Percy let out a small chuckle. “You need sleep,” 

Nico rolled his eyes. “Yeah? Well so do you,” He knew they both did. They hadn’t gotten more than a few hours of consecutive sleep in the last… forever. At least it felt like forever. Though, if anyone put Zoella down, she would start crying right away. Not even if you were standing right next to her. Did all babies do that?

Nico recalled all the information he’d gained through his baby books, and despite knowing how bad it was to sleep with a baby in your bed, he still ended up falling asleep, along with Percy, both carefully protecting their daughter from falling off the bed.

… 

Percy woke up to hear Zoella crying. He carefully took the girl in his arms. He looked over at Nico and noticed how peacefully he was sleeping. When Zoella didn’t stop crying he tiredly got up, Nico was recovering from the delivery, and he needed sleep, and if he woke up, Percy knew the son of Hades wouldn’t go back to sleep, so Percy was going to take care of the crying baby elsewhere.

“Come on, sweet girl, it’s okay,” He said, rocking her in his arms. Once he got in the living room, he sat down on the floor, laying Zoella down. His first idea as to why she was crying was that she needed her diaper changed.

He wasn’t wrong- but not completely right either. After her diaper was changed, she was still crying. Percy sighed, but was still smiling. He was too tired to care that he was tired. He had managed to get past the point of exhaustion, so now he felt pretty happy. 

He went to make her another bottle, carrying the girl carefully in his arms. “You don’t wanna wake your Dad up, do you?” He said, bouncing her in his arms. “Nah, of course not, you’re too sweet,” He laughed.

Once the bottle was made, he fed her, while turning on the dryer, letting the wrinkles get out of the clothes. By the time Zoella drank her bottle, it’d be done, and considering how low they were running on clothes- Percy thought it would be a good idea to start doing that. Multitasking was pretty much the only way to actually get stuff done in this house now. 

Percy did just as he said he was going to. He fed Zoella, and after the bottle was empty, she went back to sleep. He got off the couch and placed the bottle in the kitchen, all while keeping her closely in his arms, knowing if he sat her down for longer than a second, she’d most likely begin to cry… like usual. He went into the laundry room and grabbed the clothes- which were pretty much all Zoella’s. Nico and Percy had probably only gone through like- two outfits each in this time, just because they had no time to actually change, Zoella on the other hand, liked to ruin almost every pair of clothes she had every thirty minutes.

He sat back down in the living room with the basket of clothes. This time, he was sitting on the floor as he began to fold them. He was done with the laundry when he heard footsteps behind him. “Why didn’t you wake me?” came a very familiar voice. 

“Because,” Percy said, turning his head back. “I’m not the one who needs to rest after having my body go through something crazy, like I don’t know, give birth,”

“It’s been two weeks now. I’m fine,” 

“Yeah, but you haven’t been resting,” He said, he stood up and walked over to Nico. “And I know you’re extremely strong and all that, but this is different, your body needs time to recover.”

Nico just stared at Percy. He eventually registered what he said and smiled. “Yeah, but I’m gonna go make coffee,”

Percy rolled his eyes fondly as he watched Nico go into the kitchen. “Fine, but go lay down, I’ll tell you when it’s done,”

Nico looked at him skeptically, but his body really wanted to take up the offer, so eventually the son of Hades did so, going back into their room and laying down.

Percy actually had no intention of going to tell Nico when the coffee was done- did he feel bad for lying? Yeah, a little. But he knew he needed sleep, and he also knew Nico would never admit he needed sleep. So, if that meant he had to tell a little lie, then he would. 

He went back to the couch and looked down at Zoella’s sleeping face and despite the exhaustion and fear of what was to come, looking at her little face made Percy feel so at peace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> /i know it’s a short chapter, but i just need to get past this point, so then I can actually write some plot- this was more of a filler… i'm sorry, but the next one’s actually good, how do i know? Well i’ve already started writing that one lmao that’s how much i hate this chapter. I skipped it. And went to the good stuff.


	3. chapter two - guilt

Today Zoella hit five weeks old. She has been with us for five whole months now. That’s over a month- granted he didn’t realize it was over a month until literally five seconds ago when Percy said it. It’s not that he didn’t know five weeks = a month and one week, he just didn’t think about it. All his days had been blending together recently anyway.

“I got her,” Nico said, sitting next to Percy who was basically asleep on the couch, the girl in his arms. 

“Hmn?” He asked, opening his eyes. “Oh,” He said, looking around. He slowly sat up and carefully handed Zoella to Nico. “You sure you got it?”

“Yes, Percy,” He said, slightly rolling his eyes. “I appreciate you caring, but I’m fine, truly- you on the other hand, you need sleep,”

“Rude,” 

“Not like that,” Nico laughed, rolling his eyes at the taller males comment. He adjusted Zoella in his arms to make her more secure.

Percy smiled, standing up. “I know.” He leant down and gave Nico a peck on the lips. Which, no matter how many times he did it, Nico always got shocked, he wasn’t really sure why, it was just he always got so shocked that Percy would actually _want_ to kiss him. “You’re cute,” He laughed before rubbing Nico’s head and then stumbling off to bed. 

Nico was left in the living room with a goofy flustered smile on his face. He wasn’t too sure what he did to deserve that boy, but gods, was he so fucking grateful. He smiled down at the sleeping baby in his arms. How did he get so lucky? 

He sat down on the couch and turned on the TV, watching whatever he could find on a low volume. He just wanted some background noise, he wasn’t too interested in what was playing. He looked down at Zoella’s face and brushed some of her hair out of her face.

She was still only five weeks, but she already had some hair, dark black and little curls. She truly was the most adorable thing Nico has ever seen, even when she kept him up all night. Though, the sleeping thing had gotten easier. They found a system that worked, and even just these few weeks, Zoella got better about sleeping longer, and crying less. She still hated to be left alone, not in someone’s arms, but she wasn't sleeping for thirty minutes, eating for another, crying for 15, then sleeping for maybe 20- And Nico was so happy about that. 

Looking down at his sweet baby girl’s face, slowly a feeling of extreme guilt washed over him. How could he have almost given up on his baby? He was going to basically kill his baby. He started thinking about how much different right now would be if Zoella wasn’t here, if he signed the papers, if Annabeth hadn’t saved the day the way she did.

He was going to murder his child.

He tried reasoning with himself. He tried to tell himself that she was in pain, and that god-like medicine was what had to end up saving her- but what if he signed the papers a little faster? What if they decided not to think about it as much as they did. They would have killed her. How could he have done that? How could he do that to her?

“Shit,” He cursed to himself. He was emotional during his pregnancy, sure. However, it was nothing like this. Ever since he actually gave birth to Zoella, he felt so touchy to everything. He didn’t want to compare it back to when he was depressed, because he knew he should be happy, but sometimes he had felt so empty… and everything was sad sometimes. 

He wiped his tears away. “Why am I crying?” He asked himself, wiping his other eye with his sleeve. He now had watery vision as he gave a shaky smile to his baby. “You’re so cute, pumpkin, and I’m so sorry,” He said. He knew Zoella didn’t understand what he was saying, considering she was asleep and a baby, so he thought maybe apologizing would maybe make him feel better.

“Daddy’s so sorry,” He said, brushing her dark hair away from her face. “He’s so so sorry, and he’ll never ever do anything like it again, he’s gonna keep you safe now, okay?” He held his daughter close, leaning down and kissing her forehead. “I love you so so much,” He said.

“Hey, Nico, have you seen my AHS hoodie? I know it’s a dumb thing to look for but it’s soft and I can’t find it,”

At the sound of Percy’s voice, Nico’s eyes got wide. He was thankful for the fact Percy was behind him, so he had time to quickly wipe his eyes before turning to face him. “Uh, no I can’t say I have,” He stood up, keeping Zoella snug in his arms. “I mean, I was wearing it a few days ago, it’s probably just in the dryer,” He said, walking to the laundry room avoiding eye contact with the son of Poseidon. 

Percy followed after him into the small room that barely even fit the washer and dryer. Nico pulled it out of the dryer and handed it to Percy, still trying to not make direct eye contact with him. He knew his little-mini-break-down/guilt-trip probably made his face red and blotchy. “Here,”

“Wait,” He said, tucking the hoodie in his elbow. “Hey,” he grabbed Nico’s arm with one hand, stopping him from running away. “Baby,” He said, carefully placing his hand on the side of Nico’s face.

“Hm?” Nico said, looking up now, knowing it would be harder to play everything off if he made a whole deal about eye contact.

“What’s wrong?” 

Nico looked at Percy, feigning confusion. “.. N.. Nothing..?” he wasn’t proud of it, but Nico was a pretty good liar. Or, a good faker- that’s the prefered term he used. If you asked him if he took the last drink from the fridge, he’d be a stuttering mess because he couldn’t form lies like that- but he was really good at faking emotions, pretending he was fine, all that shit.

Percy looked into Nico’s eyes, his sea green once clouded with concern. “You sure,” 

Nico forced a smile. “Yeah, dork,” He leaned more into Percy’s hand, even bringing his own and placing it over it. “Now stop being silly and go to sleep,”

“Promise?” He asked, still looking at Nico with worry. “If you’re not you can tell me, it’s okay, you don’t have to pretend anymore, okay?”

“I know,” Nico said, avoiding that whole ‘promise’ thing. “I’m okay,” He said, choosing okay over fine because if you say you're fine, everyone knows you're not actually fine. Fine never meant fine. Okay was more convincing. “Please go get some sleep, it’s good for you.”

Percy gave a small smile. “Hypocrite,”

“Yada yada,” Nico said, smiling back. “Sleep well,”

“Mhm,” He smiled, pulling his hand away from Nico’s cheek. “I love you,”

“I love you, too,” Nico smiled. “Now please, get your ass in bed,”

Percy smiled brightly, leaning down to kiss Nico’s forehead, before turning around to go back to their room. Nico stood in the doorway of their laundry room, waiting till he heard the door close. At that moment, his face fell immediately and tears threatened to start spilling out again. “Great,” He whispered. “Now I’ve got him worried,”

“I’m such shit,” He cursed himself. He tried to regroup himself. He knew wallowing in self-pity wasn’t going to get anybody anywhere. He just needed to put it behind him.

Taking a deep breath he went into the kitchen and started making Zoella a bottle. She didn’t need it yet, but he knew it was just a matter of time before she woke up, and he had a few seconds of spare time, so he’d get prepared for when she woke up.

After the bottle was made and placed in the fridge, Nico went to grab a diaper, knowing she’d probably need one of those when she woke up too. When everything was set up, Nico sat back down on the couch, pushing away any intrusive thoughts.

~*~

Around 5 o’ clock, Percy woke up, walking out of there room while Nico was feeding Zoella. Percy took a seat next to them, smiling at them. “Hey,” he said sleepily. Nico couldn’t help but a smile spreading across his own face.

Nico leaned his head against Percy’s shoulder. Percy snaked his arm around Nico’s waist and pulled him closer, then placed his other hand over Nico’s hands that were holding Zoella. Percy kissed Nico’s temple. 

A few seconds pass before Nico speaks up. “What do you want for dinner?”

Percy simply shrugs. “I’m not too sure,” He says, cuddling close to Nico. “Do you want me to make you something though?” He asked.

Nico shook his head. “No, I’ll do it, i just don’t know what,”

“Well, what do you feel like eating?”

“I don't know,” Nico laughed. “That’s why I asked you,”

“When have I ever been good at making decisions?”

Nico smiled. “I guess you’re right,”

“I’m always right,”

Nico raised his eyebrow. “Sure you are,” He teased.

Percy laughed. 

Once Zoella finished her bottle, Nico handed her to Percy while he got up to go make dinner. He looked in the cabinets and really couldn’t find anything. He kept searching, standing on his tiptoes to try and see the top shelf. He saw something that looked like ramen, so he reached towards it and was happy when he pulled it down and realized he was right. 

“I’m making ramen, are you sure you don’t want anything?” He called out while Percy played with Zoella, kissing her little forehead.

“Yeah, I’m sure, thank you, though,” he responded.

Nico opened the packaging while grabbing a pot from their cabinets. He filled it with water and set it on the stove top. He sat on the counter next to the stove while he waited for the water to boil. 

He looked over at the couch, watching as Percy loved on Zoella, and his mood, that should have been going up, went down. He brought his hand up to his eyes as he noticed damned tears forming. He knew he had to stay silent. He didn’t want Percy to see him this time. 

He wiped his tears away faster than they could form. Why was he so sad about seeing this beautiful scene in front of him? Guilt. Guilt swelled back up in his chest as his body started shaking slightly, the water beginning to slightly simmer. 

How could he have ever wanted to give up on this? How did he think that was okay? Why did he give up on her so easily? He wasn’t cut out to be a parent. He really wasn’t. Why did Percy even stay with him? He didn’t deserve it. He didn’t deserve to call Zoella his daughter. 

His water was boiling now, so he hopped off the counter and went to put the noodles into the water. He stared into the boiling water, not wanting to look back at the people he loved and maybe even cry more. He needed to pull himself together. He shouldn’t be wallowing in self pity. He was a shit person. He’d known this his entire life. Why should things start changing now.

He wiped his eyes, poured the flavor packet into his food, then poured it in the bowl, grabbing a fork. He went back to the couch to sit down next to Percy and Zoella. Zoella was just staring up, looking at Percy with wide eyes. “I think she wants to fight,” Percy joked. “Look at her, her entire expression is just asking to square up,”

“Percy, she doesn’t even know what that even means,” Nico laughed, twisting his fork around to grab a bite. 

“True, but I mean just look at her,” He said, using his head to gesture in her direction.

Nico laughed. “I think she’d beat you in a fight,”

“Oh,” Percy laughed. “For sure, I don’t stand a chance.” 

They joked with each other. But they had no clue. No clue what was to come. Not a single clue. 

**//fyi almost everything in this chapter is hinting towards the next chapter so if you figure it out, just know there’s gonna be lots of fluffy stuff :)** //

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading <3 also sorry it was short, i figured short chapter is better than no chapter.


	4. chapter three - postpartum.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> short of trigger warning; nico talks about his body image, and i know that can be triggering to some. I know that for me it’s a sensitive topic and i don’t like talking about it, but it doesn’t upset me in writing, but I know it may some, so i just wanted to put this warning. Stay safe loves

Nico looked at himself in the mirror, not just a quick glance, but looked at it deeply, taking in the details. He put him in a weird state of mind. Reminded him of disassociation. Was that what was going on? It’s not like it was impossible for that to be happening, but _why_?

He felt like absolute shit. And him feeling like shit, only made him feel shittier, because what gave him the right to feel this way. Why was he even in the bathroom right now? Oh right. A shower. He needed to shower. 

Percy was watching Zoella and he was going to shower. That’s what he was supposed to be doing. How long had he been standing here? Snapping out of it, he got undressed, tossing his clothes to the side. He got in the shower and let the water run down his shoulders. 

Why was he feeling this way? He hadn’t felt like this in a very long time. Empty. He felt _so_ empty. For the longest time, he had felt guilty. Guilty for wanting to give up- and he still did, but he also just felt hollow. Like he wasn’t a person, just a shell. 

He reached for the shampoo, not wanting to spend too much time in the shower. After all the shampoo was out, he reached for the conditioner. He wanted to rush everything. He wanted to get out of this shower, or maybe it was the bathroom. Or maybe it was having time to be alone and simply think. Think too deeply. Thinking was dangerous. Especially because of the mood he’s been in lately.

He was finally done showering and he got out, wrapped a towel around his waist, and walked to the clothes he had brought with him that were sitting on the sink. When arriving, he took a glance in the mirror. _ew_. Did he really look like that? He felt like he had gained some weight. It wasn’t too much- but he definitely did. He had more ‘squish’. Which he knew was probably good for him, but he also used to be underweight and borderline deathly thin, so it was weird to see himself like this.

He didn’t like it. He looked gross. He didn’t like the way he looked before, but at least he was… thinner. Now he had weight around his hips, and his stomach had a little bump. He grabbed it with his hands. He knew he was being ridiculous. Literally in total he may have gained ten pounds- he was overreacting, but he couldn’t help but feel repulsed at himself. 

He turned around and looked at his back. There was less definition of his spine- that should be a good thing, right? But why did it make him feel so awful? He felt icky, gross, disgusting. 

He couldn’t bear to look at himself anymore. He reached for the clothes, pulling on Percy’s hoodie- an item that had quickly become his favorite- followed by boxers, and then joggers. 

He looked at himself one last time in the mirror, were his cheeks rounder? He poked at his chin. His face was still slim, right? He could hide his stomach, but his face is another story. It looked fine, the same, he looked more tired, but that was most likely just lack of sleep.

He needed to get away from this mirror. He opened the door and saw Percy there, sitting on the bed with their daughter in his hands. He was good at being a parent. Far better than Nico thought he could dream of being. He wasn’t really cut out for it. Percy was though. Percy was… nothing short of amazing. 

“Hey,” Percy smiled, watching as Nico walked from the bathroom door to the bed, sitting beside the son of Poseidon. 

“Hi,” He smiled back, looking up at his green eyes and then at Zoella. 

“Better?” the raven-haired boy asked, looking at Nico with concern in his eyes. 

It took Nico a second to realize what he was talking about. Percy had found him basically having a panic attack. “Oh yeah.” He said, slightly embarrassed at the situation. “Yeah, better, uh, thank you,” He was thankful. Thankful Percy didn’t think he was an actual psychopath. Why was he freaking out so much? It just seemed like that was all he had been doing lately. 

There was a beat of silence. Nico just kept looking at Zoella. He loved her so much, he truly did, but why did he feel like he should leave? Like he was only going to burden her for the rest of her life.

“If you ever need to talk,” Percy said, clearly seeing distress on Nico’s face. “You know I’m always gonna be here for you, okay? Whatever it is,” His tone was caring and nothing but that. When Nico looked up at him, when his eyes met with Percy’s green ones, showing something Nico has only ever seen in two other people. His mother, and Will. 

Just seeing that expression aimed at him again made his heart swell and his throat tight. “I.. I know,” He said, trying not to cry again. Seriously… What was wrong with him? Percy looked at him skeptically. He knew Nico was not fine, knew he needed to talk. Percy felt helpless, he didn’t know _what_ was wrong, he just knew something was. “I love you,” Nico said, sensing his worry. “Thank you,”

“I love you, too,” Percy said, and the way he said it made it sound like a promise. It made Nico’s heart flutter. He cuddled Percy’s side, sighing contently. He tried to focus on Percy’s breathing to avoid freaking out again. He felt like a bomb, one wrong movement and _boom_. He just needed to calm himself down. Avoid blowing up at all costs. He didn’t want to have another repeat of the panic attack he had thirty minutes ago.

It was maybe only ten minutes later when the new parents both started to fall asleep when their daughter started crying. Nico was the first to get up, watching as Percy started to stir. He took the girl from between his hands and walked into the kitchen, wanting Percy to continue sleeping thinking it was the least he could do. 

He looked at the drying spot on the floor. _Oh, yeah._

He remembered how he dropped a bottle when the attack started. How Percy called his name, asking if everything was alright, how he walked in when Nico didn’t respond. He probably looked like a wreck. 

_What if he had been holding Zoella?_ He really didn’t want to think about that. It would have been catastrophic. He needed to figure out what was going on with him. It was only going to get worse if he didn’t figure his shit out- but that was easier than said then done. He didn’t have a single clue in the world why this was happening to him. 

Why did he start to act like this again all of the sudden? It didn’t make any sense. He hadn’t felt this way since a little after the whole jar incident. He wasn’t sure what was going on. He had no reason to be feeling this way. He had his daughter now, she was safe and in his arms, but still- he felt like absolute garbage. 

It wasn’t fair, he thought. He should be happy. Why the hell wasn’t he happy? Why was he thinking the things he was. Why did he feel this way? It hurt. Hurt more than anything he’s ever been through. Because there wasn’t an answer to this.

‘Nico why are you so traumatized?’ Oh well my mom died, i was locked away, sister then died, went through Tartarus alone and was starved in a jar, to then have to physically push myself to my absolute limits to deliver a statue so save the camps- the camps that were meant to be my home but I didn’t feel that connection there for feeling completely alone.

See, an answer. A clear, cookie-cutter reason why he was the way he was. But this? This had no logical answer. Not one bit. He should be so happy. But he wasn’t. Instead, he was in agonizing pain. 

He rocked the crying baby in his arms, taking a deep breath. He was _not_ going to spiral again. He wasn’t exactly sure of what had triggered his panic attack last time, but he didn’t want a repeat- especially if Percy was asleep, leaving him alone with Zoella.

Pathetic. He couldn’t even be alone with his child. He was truly an awful parent. He was disgusted with himself. 

He realized Percy probably fed her after the whole incident considering that’s what Nico was going to do before he went all wack, so he went into their living room to go change her diaper. 

He did just that, and it was probably twenty minutes later when she was drifting off again. Nico, still tired, decided to bring Zoella back into the bedroom where he could go back to laying next to Percy. He helped him calm down a lot. Like, even if he was still drowning in painful thoughts, as long as Percy was next to him, he felt like he had a reason to rationalize. 

Look, he knows it doesn’t make sense, but a lot of things don’t.

He slid next to Percy, carefully holding Zoella in his arms. “There you are,” He tossed an arm around Nico’s waist. “I was cold,” He said, getting closer to Nico. 

For some reason, the hand around his waist was making him freak out. He was bigger now. He wasn’t thin. He looked completely different than what he did before Zoella. He didn’t want Percy to feel that, or see that. However, he also didn’t want to be weird and tell him to move his arm.

So he just tried to stay calm, focusing on his breathing, and trying to realize Percy wasn’t like that. Percy wouldn’t leave him over something so dumb. 

Go to sleep and you won’t have to worry about it. 

So, he tried to go to sleep. However, that’s hard to do when you’re worrying so much about something. He knew it was stupid, he did. But, that didn’t stop the thoughts

He readjusted slightly, taking a deep breath, and drifted off to sleep.

~*~

Percy knew Nico hadn’t been okay. 

He wasn’t really sure exactly why he wasn’t okay- but he just knew he wasn’t. More times than not when he’d see Nico, his eyes would be red-rimmed from crying. He’d also notice the mask he was wearing at times. He knew Nico for a long time, he knew when he wasn’t being himself.

And now he was back to having panic attacks. He wasn’t exactly sure what was going on in his head. He just knew he wanted to help. When Nico had come back from helping Zoella, Percy had cuddled against him, but he was still awake. He felt him tense up.

Was it Percy? Was he the problem? He wanted to talk to Nico about everything, but the shorter male was never the best at voicing his feelings. Percy didn’t want to corner him and just say ‘talk.’ but he was running out of ideas. 

He started hearing soft snores from Nico and he knew he was sleeping now. He looked over at the beautiful boy in front of him and reached a hand out, brushing his hair behind his ear. He wanted nothing more than to know what was wrong with him, to know what was worrying his mind. 

As weird as it may sound, he just kind of gazed at Nico for a moment, admiring him. His soft features, his button nose, his round eyes that were softly closed. He really was just perfect. His hand that had brushed back Nico’s hair, went down and did the same to Zoella. 

He couldn’t be more prideful of his little family. Was it in any way traditional? No. But he’s never had a traditional family before- and there’s no reason to start now. He truly loved his family. 

They were everything to him.

Why didn’t he know how to help them?

He softly sighed. Zoella stirred in Nico’s arms, causing the dark brown haired male to open his eyes, and instinctively look down to check if she was okay. Percy couldn’t help but smile. 

When Nico noticed he was awake, the son of Hades smiled back. “You’re up,”

Percy kissed the other's forehead. “Yeah,” He answered back softly. 

Percy couldn’t help his heart from swelling when he saw the light blush across Nico’s pale cheeks. 

“Stop looking at me like that,” Nico said, laughing lightly.

“Like what?” Percy said, making no effort to change his gaze. “I’m just looking at you,” He said, a hint of humor in his tone. 

Nico just lightly shook his head and smiled. “You’re too sweet, y’know?”

“No way,” And he meant it. Percy wished he could be more sweet to the smaller male, wanting nothing more than to always keep a smile on his face. 

“Yes way,” Nico said, more matter-of-factly. “I don’t deserve you,” He said. Nico’s tone made it seem light, almost like he was joking- but it gave Percy a puzzle piece. Was that what was going on? 

“Yes you do,” He said. Trying to maintain the light tone, while also letting him know he was completely serious. “I’m the one who doesn’t deserve you,”

And Percy meant it. He, to this day, still thought he didn’t deserve Nico’s forgiveness for everything he put him through, rather it be his sister or the unrequited crush for years before Percy got it through his own thick skull- he was surprised Nico could still care for him. 

Nico looked at him as if the raven-haired boy had just spoken gibberish to him. 

“I’m serious,” He said, laughing it off a bit, because he knew Nico didn’t do well in super serious situations, but he wanted the younger to know. 

Nico just shook his head, he had a smile on his face but Percy saw his eyes begin to water. Nico didn’t just cry. That’s not something he did- was he more emotional during his pregnancy, sure. However, beforehand, he almost never cried. 

Now to see him start to get emotional over a few words, Percy was starting to see what the issue may be. He was sure the hormones had something to do with it, because Nico had seemed fine and content in their relationship before Zoella’s birth. 

“Wait, ah, no, I- Sorry, Jeez, I, um-” Nico brought one hand up and wiped his eye. “Why am I crying?” He asked, mainly to himself. Nico slowly sat up, still cradling Zoella in one of his arms, while the other one wiped his eyes… 

Percy was about to say something when he shook his head. “I’m gonna go make dinner, okay?” He said. “Can you take her?” He asked, holding Zoella out. Percy accepted her into his arms, but reached out to Nico.

“Wait-”

“No please, really, I’m just gonna go make dinner, okay? I’ll tell you when it’s done,” 

Percy sighed as he watched Nico literally run from the situation. He had to do something. He hated knowing something was going on with Nico. He looked at the sleeping baby in his arms. “Okay, princess, uh, you know daddy loves you, but I think we can try this whole sleeping in your bassinet thing for a few minutes, is that okay?” He knew he wasn’t going to get a response, but nonetheless. It was mainly to make him feel less guilty. 

He knew he had a few minutes before Zoella would wake up, and who knew, maybe this is how they found out she can sleep on her own… who was he kidding. She still hates sleeping alone… but this was a crazy circumstance. He wasn’t a bad dad for leaving her, safely in her bassinet.. Was he? No.

“Sleep well, pumpkin,” He said, carefully wrapping blankets around her. Yes, babies, as a general rule, should sleep without blankets - he knew that, but if he followed all the rules, she wouldn’t ever get any sleep because they shouldn’t sleep in their parents bed either. 

He hoped the comforting blankets would keep her warm and feel secure, meaning she’d sleep longer. 

He walks out of the room quietly to not wake Zoella. Once he walked down the hall and into the kitchen he found Nico in the kitchen, but he wasn’t making dinner or doing anything really. He’s leaning against the counter, and Percy can see his shoulders shaking. “...Nico…” He says, walking up to him.

Nico jumps in response and turns to face him, only after wiping his eyes quickly. 

“What’s wrong?” Percy asked, mentally scolding himself at the useless question. 

“Where’s Zo’?” 

“She’s safe don’t worry,” Percy said, watching as Nico relaxed slightly now knowing that. He walked over to where Nico was standing and placed a hand on the side of his face. “Can you tell me what’s been going on?”

Nico stayed silent, just looking into Percy’s eyes. 

“You can talk to me,”

Nico nodded but didn’t actually talk.

Percy planned to stay here as long as Zoella allowed him until she woke up. He wanted to help Nico so badly, and he wished he was better at it. 

“I know.” He finally said. “But I don’t even know.. I don’t know what’s wrong is the problem, there’s just so many things, and none of them make sense, and it’s just- I don’t know, everything’s all jumbled up, I wouldn’t even know where to begin,”

“Anywhere,” Percy said. “It doesn’t have to make sense. It doesn’t need to have a reason, just start anywhere.”

Nico looked up at Percy with wide eyes. “I…” He took a deep breath. “I think- It started out with just feeling guilty…”

Percy tried not to let the shock that Nico actually listened and was now talking show on his face. 

“Then it turned into just… hopeless thoughts I guess…” Nico was now looking down. “And now it’s like… everything. Things that I used to never care about… I’ve never cared about what I look like, but for some reason… and I never cared about… anything, really… and now I do… I feel like, I’m just-” Nico stopped himself. “-It’s just complicated… and I feel like… shit… I feel like I’m not doing anything but moping… and that maybe if I left… and wasn’t here- Zoella would be better off. And I feel… guilty. Like I don’t deserve to be in her life… I don’t think I deserve to be in yours… It’s stupid… I know it is… and I just need to get over it…” He said, looking back up with a forced, loppy smile. “I’m only telling you this because I know you’re worried… but don’t be… I’m sure it’ll pass.”

Percy’s ears couldn’t believe what he just heard. “How in the world do you think you don’t deserve to be with us? Nico, do you know how much you mean to me? To her? How much happiness have you given me?”

Nico stayed silent.

“Why do you… Is it something I-”

“No,” Nico said quickly. “That’s one of the reasons I didn’t even want to tell you anything, because I knew you’d think that… and that’s not the case. I just… I’m not good at being a parent for one, I mean, I almost gave up on her… Percy she almost… if it wasn’t for Annabeth…” He trailed off. “...And…” He said, to change to subject before he had another panic attack. “I’m- I don’t even look the same anymore… and I’m afraid that i’ll make you regret being with me- and I know you won’t… right? I have this voice in the back of my head telling me that’s stupid because you’re probably the best guy I know… but I just… I keep thinking about it, and now I care about it… and I don’t know, again, I really don’t know… but it’s not you. Not you at all. Please don’t think that, Perce.” Tears were in Nico’s eyes now. “I just- please don’t think any of this is you. It’s me, okay?”

The room was silent as Percy processed everything. Has Nico been feeling like this since leaving the hospital? Had he been feeling this way the whole time? Why was he just now noticing? 

The silence was shattered as Zoella’s cries could be heard. Nico wiped his eyes before placing his hand on Percy’s shoulder, rubbing it soothingly, and leaving to go tend to their child.

Percy gave himself a minute because despite how he wishes he was this great amazing guy- he really wasn’t perfect, and he kind of sucked at comforting people, and he needed a minute to think about the best way to help Nico. 

At this time, Percy figured it out. He remembered when his mom’s friend had her baby, she went through it really bad. ‘Postpartum depression’ Percy wasn’t sure the science behind it, because he was young at the time and didn’t really care- but the word and what happened stuck with him. Mainly because Sally’s friend had needed a lot of help from them until it got better. 

It made sense, he guessed. Nico wasn’t used to having any of these weird hormones, and then he did have them. The logic was there. 

However, knowing the problem didn’t exactly mean he knew how to help- but he was going to try. 

Processing everything the shorter male had said, Percy made his way to their bedroom where he saw Nico holding their daughter close, swaying back and forth. He was humming a tune Percy had heard him hum before- but he didn’t know the name. 

Quietly he walked over to Nico, wrapping his arms around his waist from behind and kissed his shoulder. “I’m sorry for not noticing it sooner.” He whispered into the younger’s ear. “No matter anything else, I am sorry.”

Nico was getting really tired of crying, but that didn’t stop the tears in his eyes. 

“And if it means anything… You are the best boyfriend,” the word sent a shiver down Nico’s spine. “And parent anyone could ask for. What you’re going through right now with all these thoughts, they’re not your fault… you’re not wrong for thinking these things- but I promise you… they’re not true…” Percy tried to just reassure him of everything. He knew it had to be hell in his head, so Percy was going to try and reassure him of everything he could think of.

“You’re perfect.” He said, kissing the other’s shoulder. “I look at you, and I’m not kidding, sometimes I can’t even believe you’re with me. You’re… gorgeous. And funny. And caring.” There was a short pause. “Perfect.” Percy said, pulling him closer. “You’re just… perfect…”

Nico let out a sob as he let Percy embrace him.

They stayed that way for a few more moments, Nico trying his best to conceal his sobs, Percy pressed against his back, hugging him, and Zoella slowly being lulled back to sleep.

“I love you…” Nico said softly, his voice sore sounding. 

“I love you, too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> stay safe y'all.


	5. chapter four - six months, laughter, and aunt annabeth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't kill me for the time skip. This is how the pace of the book has to go. I’m sorry.

Zoella was now six months old. Well, 6 months and a few days. 

Nico had started feeling a lot better a few weeks after addressing his postpartum depression. It did take a few days, but with a lot of help from Percy, and just figuring out what it was, he was finally able to overcome the feeling.

Zoella no longer fit her little bassinet by their bed and she had now moved to the nursery they prepared before she was born. She actually manages to sleep in there, even without her parents holding her. Their baby really was growing up. She went from thirty minutes on her own to sometimes four hours. 

Nico didn’t realize how much he had missed sleeping until he didn’t have a baby crying in his arms every hour while doing it. She still wasn’t the best sleeper, she wouldn’t go to sleep if they just set her in her crib while awake, she had to already have been sleeping- plus once she woke up, she screamed bloody murder. But still. 

They even tried that one thing for a few days where you place your baby in their crib and allow them to cry for a few minutes before rushing in, but after three days of that they decided it wasn’t going to work for them. Zoella seemed to have a fear of sleeping, or maybe of just being alone in the dark. Nico figured it had something to do with their unique-demigod situation. Zoella wasn’t a normal baby. Normal tactics wouldn’t work.

Plus neither of them liked hearing their baby cry and not doing anything about it. 

However, even if it wasn’t  _ close to  _ six  _ consecutive  _ hours a night, the four they got were amazing. Also, when she’d sleep for four hours and usually continue it thirty minutes later for another hour or two before waking up again. This helped them a lot. Now they knew whoever got the baby wasn’t going to be up for the next few hours alone with a crying baby, so there was a lot less guilt.

Now they just took turns and it worked pretty well. They were really getting into the swing of things now and it helped both of them get a normal amount of sleep.

However, learning to sleep properly wasn’t the only thing Zoella had done. She now could sit up, granted, she needed a little bit of help getting up there, but she could hold it for quite some time before falling back down. She actually really enjoyed the whole thing - sitting up wobbling a bit, and falling back down against her parents. 

She also had started making nonsensical noises as a form of communication. She was yet to say a single  _ real  _ word, but they were both waiting on it. They came to the agreement to start calling each other by either Papa or Dada when around her so maybe she’d pick up on that and say their names.

It was kind of a competition to see which one was said first. Okay, it was  _ completely  _ a competition to see which one she said first.

Another thing Zoella could do now was  _ roll.  _ Which they guessed was better than crawling, right? Like start small and then go to the scary crawling. Nico was actually more worried when she started crawling than when she started walking. It’s easier to see a baby standing up than one that’s crawling around.

Don’t get them wrong - they were both so excited to see Zoella grow and learn new things, but her learning to move did scare them a bit. Okay, it actually scared them a lot.

~.o.0.o.~ 

Nico woke up to hearing Zoella screaming her head off. Percy also woke up to it, because well, it’s hard not to. Their girl has quite the set of lungs. 

“Go back to bed,” Nico mumbled, rubbing his eyes. “‘M getting her,” He said, patting Percy’s chest as he got out of bed. 

Percy mumbled something like a ‘thank you’ and then went back to sleep. Nico looked over at him, watching as the tall male basically moved into a fetal position now since Nico wasn’t there between his arms. The son of Hades couldn’t help but smile. Percy Jackson is the cutest hot person he’s ever met.

Usually you get one, but Percy had both.

He was so damn lucky. 

He quickly rushed out of their room and into the nursery, where Zoella was crying in her crib. He flicked on the lamp they had next to the door and walked over to where she was sleeping. “Good morning, Pumpkin,” He smiled, trying to trick himself that it was a reasonable time like six in the morning and not 4 am. 

When did six am become reasonable to him? 

He walked over to the crib and lowered the one part so it’d be easier to reach in and grab her.

She looked up at Nico with those big green eyes of hers and he didn’t care that he had little to no sleep keeping him going, because that look she gave him made it all worth it. 

In the past few weeks, her eyes had gone from a light blue-green to an emerald color, making those looks feel even more intense. 

Nico pulled her out of the crib and brought her to his chest. “Hey, Zo,” He cooed, kissing her forehead. 

He changed her diaper first before anything, figuring that was always the best place to start. Once he finished that, he picked her back up. She was babbling along and of course Nico nodded like he understood everything she was saying. “Let’s go get you some food, huh?” He asked, despite knowing damn well he wasn’t getting a response. 

He flicked the lights off before walking out. She started crying immediately after. Nico wasn’t sure if six month old babies could have fears, but he figured Zoella was scared of the dark. Everytime she was awake and in the dark- she got upset.

“Don’t cry, baby,” He cooed as he walked into the lit hallway. “Let’s go get food, okay?” 

Zoella stopped crying after a few more steps into the brightened hallway. Nico kept her in his arm as he decided if he should go for baby food or the formula. Zo didn’t take a liking to the baby food too much- but his baby books said he should start introducing them to her. 

However, he didn’t want to put up the fight of making sure she kept the food down. 

He made the bottle, and infused far less nectar into it than he had four months ago. She was stronger now- and she couldn’t rely on the nectar forever, so slowly they were putting less and less into her bottle. 

When the bottle was finished he moved over to the floor and leaned his back against the couch. You may be wondering why not just sit on the couch? Well, it was much easier to play with her on the floor. Especially when a lot of her play consisted of her rolling on her tummy. 

Zoella happily took the bottle. Which Nico was grateful for. Maybe she didn’t sleep, but she took a bottle very well. 

She finished her bottle in about thirty minutes and was ready to be burped. Nico put a spit-up rag over his shoulder before lightly tapping his hand on her back. 

Before he actually had a baby, he always figured this would be a really awful part- along with diaper changing and like- all other aspects of  _ actually  _ taking care of kids. He never  _ hated  _ kids or anything- he actually loved kids, however, he still didn’t think he’d have the stomach to care for them.

But once you actually have a kid- while yes, spit up and dirty diapers are still not exactly  _ pleasant _ , you didn’t really see it that way. If anything, it made Nico feel good. He was taking care of this person he created. It was pretty amazing. Just that fact made the gross parts less gross. 

That didn’t make sense. But, how else are you supposed to describe it? He was so proud of his daughter and the fact he was providing for her… it was amazing. 

Just as he finished wrapping up that thought, Zo gave him a really nice present. “Oi, there we go,” He said, pulling her away, then removing the rag from his shoulder. “Who’s papa’s good girl?” He said, kissing her forehead. 

He carefully sat Zoella down on her back. She looked up at him with wide eyes. She reached her hand out and Nico held his finger out. He smiled as she gripped it. 

Things have been pretty good recently. It was really rough for a while, with Nico struggling with postpartum and both parents being so sleep deprived. 

But things were slowly calming down. It was less rushing everywhere and Nico was now able to take time to breathe and enjoy the little things like moments like these. 

Out of the incoherent babbles Zoella had been making, Nico caught a certain one that Zo was very fond of saying. “Wowo” Which meant she wanted her toy shark. It was red and had way too cartoony teeth, and it scared Nico a little bit- but Zoella loved it. 

“You want Wowo?” He asked, looking around the floor for the red shark. He wasn’t sure why he was looking because he knew it was in her crib. She had grown so attached to that stuffed toy that she practically wanted it with her at all times. 

Knowing she didn’t exactly like to be left alone, Nico picked her up and went into her room, turning the lights on again. He reached into her crib and grabbed the shark, then carefully went and sat down on her nursery floor. The nursery had carpet, which was more comfortable than the living room’s hard floor.

He sat her down in between his crossed legs, leaning her back against his chest. He held the toy in front of them and moved it around, leaning forward slightly to watch his daughters face light up. 

His hair kept falling in his face so he quickly pulled it back to keep it out of his face so he could see better.

Nico pulled the toy back, then brought it close to her again, watching as she smiled. 

~.o.0.o.~

Percy didn’t let himself sleep much longer after Nico left. It was maybe only thirty or forty-five minutes after Nico left before he was getting up too. 

After all, he had stuff to do today. 

A few weeks ago, Percy resumed his work with the monuments, and Nico had found a job. 

Luckily, everyone at Camp Jupiter was rooting for them, and the establishment where Nico now worked was very helpful in constructing his schedule so both demigods had time to work and take care of their daughter- without having to hire anybody as a babysitter.

Nico now worked at a training-school. Ever since the war, Camp Jupiter wanted to start teaching kids basic attacking tactics for the worst case. They needed teachers. Nico had been through a lot of fighting in his days, so why not him? 

It paid well and his employers were kind and understanding of their situation. 

He rubbed his eyes as he walked out of their bedroom, first going to the living room to look for Nico and Zoella. When he realized they weren’t there, he turned on the coffee, then went down the hall. He saw Nico and Zo, sitting on the floor, playing with Zoella’s favorite toy.

Nico’s hair was pulled back which made him even hotter - if that was even possible. He smiled as he walked in, sitting across from the two. “Good morning,” He said, watching as Zoella looked at the stuffed animal with wonder. 

“Good morning,” Nico smiled back, continuing the action. “Look how much she likes this,” He said, almost like when you want to show your friend the new trick your dog learned. He pulled the toy away, then brought it closer to her, making a funny noise along with it.

Percy beamed at the bright smile that Zoella was now wearing. If this wasn’t a great start to his day he didn’t know what was. 

“Everytime I do it, I always think she’s gonna laugh,” Nico starts, only stopping to make the noise again, Percy watching in awe. “But nope,” He said, smiling down at the baby in his arms. 

“Maybe she’s just not the laughing type,”

“Mmm, yeah,” Nico said. “She’d get that from me, then,” following that up with that playful noise again, which had completely contradicted everything he had just said. 

“Oh yes, you’re always Mister Serious, never goofy. Ever.”

Nico rolled his eyes. “Shut up,” He said, laughing lightly. “But in the books I read, some babies just take a while to laugh,”

“Every baby’s different,” Percy reasoned, reaching out and rubbing her head. Her eyes went from the toy to Percy. “All I know is if I miss her first laugh, I will cry,”

“Me too,” Nico said with a joking-tone, but he was being completely serious. “What time do you have to leave today anyway?” 

“Annabeth’s gonna be there at eight, so I guess I should be there around that time too,” he said. “But I don’t like it,”

“You’ll be fine,” He said. “Just set a super easy goal, that way when you reach it, you’ll actually be over-achieving,” 

Percy laughed at Nico’s logic. “Yeah, okay, but it’s not the getting the work done part, it’s the making sure the gods we’re honoring are okay with how they’re portrayed. Some of them can get really rude,”

“Some?,” Nico said, raising a brow, looking at Percy. Then he brought his attention back to Zoella and made the funny noise again, smiling as Zoella smiled. 

Percy’s heart swelled at the sight. How in the world did he get so lucky? “Plus some of them really don’t like me.”

“Why not-?” Nico blurted before thinking. Shortly after, he realized as he looked back down at their daughter. “Oh, yeah, well tell them to screw off,” 

“I don’t think they’d like that very much,” Percy laughed. 

“Well, they can get over it,” Nico said, and everytime Nico went to make that noise and bring the toy close to Zoella, Percy couldn’t help but smile.

“Have you met any god ever?”

“Guess you’re right,” He laughed. “They don’t really get over things, do they?” Nico noticed how she was getting slightly bored of the toy and he picked her up, facing him. He lifted her up and brought her back down, making a new noise, but it caused Zoella to smile nonetheless.

Percy noted how different Nico was acting now. He seemed more calm and like he was enjoying this crazy experience more than being afraid of it. He wore a smile on his face most of the time. Percy hadn’t realized how much he had missed that smile. 

Even before Zoella was born, he hadn’t smiled much. The son of Hades seemed to always be worried about what was to come. 

But he was smiling again, and that always made Percy smile. He gave the same smile he used to give before any of it happened. Before they even slept together and they would just hang out.

He loved that smile, loved it so much. He was so glad it was back and he would do anything to make sure it didn’t leave. 

Percy was brought back to Earth and out of ‘Lalaland’ when Nico spoke up. “Can you take her, I have to pee,” 

He chuckled before taking her in his arms. 

“Thank you,” the brunette said, getting up off the ground and leaving the room. 

Percy bounced her on his knee, watching as her smile would grow. Sometimes it looked like she was just about to laugh, but then she just didn’t. Maybe it was for the best that she didn’t laugh right then. Percy wanted to see Nico’s face when it finally happened. 

Nico came back in shortly after and told Percy how his coffee was done, and if he needed he'd take her back while he made it. Percy said he had it, because well, he did. Plus he was going to be away from her for half the day, and he wanted to stock up on all the time he could. 

When it came to the whole job thing- he really wanted to have a  _ real  _ job. Something that would help them get money. Because while the people, especially Reyna, of New Rome were very kind and basically gave them their home for free for the first few months, there was no excuse as to why to keep mooching off of that. 

So, they decided they needed jobs. Percy was lined up to help with the aftermath of the practice fights- basically working the barracks. However, once he had to start going back and working on the monuments, he realized how much time that took away from him. He wouldn’t have anytime for the job. If he accepted it, when Nico left, nobody could watch Zoella.

They had thought about how worst case one of them could take her with them to work. But, training classes and barracks aren’t exactly baby-friendly.

If he had to bring Zoella to plan out construction in some weird office thing, that was one thing, but a place with swords and other dangerous weapons? Yeah, no. 

His job just hadn’t worked out the way he wanted it to. 

He hated not contributing to the bills or their financial situation, but Nico reasoned that preventing another war, and gaining allies if one were to happen again, was pretty important, and Percy was never one to argue with Nico’s logic. 

They made their coffee together and bickered about the perfect sugar to cream ratio. When they were done making it, they moved over to the couch to drink it. Something was playing on the TV but they weren’t really listening to it, they were more focused on the time they had together, knowing it would be gone soon. Zoella reached her hands towards their coffee’s, which was quite entertaining to them, despite how it probably shouldn’t have been. Nonetheless, she was very sad when they hadn’t given it to her.

But she quickly got over it when a paci was placed in her mouth.

Percy’s alarm went off and they both sighed. He kissed Zoella on the forehead and Nico on the lips before getting ready and rushing out the door. 

When he was gone, things got a bit more lonely. 

See, before when one of them wasn’t there (and granted, it was usually because the other was sleeping, not because they had to leave) it wasn’t as lonely, mainly because you didn’t have the time to think about it since Zoella was such a handful. Now, it was a little different. 

Nico was actually  _ dreading  _ for when she took a nap. He’d probably be insanely  _ bored.  _ Which was crazy to him since no more than two weeks ago he thought he would never have free time again.

He knew Percy would be back at lunch time, and would most likely not go back. So, that really just gave him five-ish hours to kill. He kind of just did anything and everything, but for the most part, they had been caught up on it all… Laundry, dishes, everything. 

Nico assumed things felt like they had slowed down so much because it went from barely making it to slightly pleasant. Back before, they were having so much trouble getting a load of laundry a week done, but now, Zoella actually slept, so they had time again. 

Basically, Zoella’s situation had trained them to become like… super parents or something. If they were able to make it during the first few weeks, anything was possible now. 

Nico, having nothing else to do, went into his room and sat on the middle of his bed with Zoella. He helped her sit up, but she would fall back down shortly after. 

He couldn’t help but smile. She was just so damn adorable. There was something about how she found joy in doing the same, simple action over and over again that was so endearing. All she was doing was sitting up, and falling down, but she was finding so much enjoyment in it. It was amazing. 

Then after doing that for about twenty minutes, he decided to try and get her to say ‘Papa’ but he didn’t get very far with that at all.

He just needed to accept it wasn’t going to happen anytime soon. 

But, now it was Zoella’s nap time and he knew she would be asleep for at least thirty-minutes to an hour. Which was going to be  _ so boring.  _ For some reason, everytime he felt bored, he almost felt bad or guilty. He knew he shouldn’t- but there just used to always be something to do, and he still wasn’t used to having down time. He felt like there was just always something he should be doing. 

And it’s not like there weren’t things he could do. He could go take a shower or take their trash out, but all those things required him to not be able to hear Zoella if she started crying, and considering her history with waking up screaming her head off, he really didn’t want to leave her alone, crying in her crib, for long.

Nico was a worrier, ever since he was young, he would over-worry. He’d even come up with crazy unrealistic reasons for simple reactions. Like, when he was seven, and Bianca liked a boy who didn’t like her back, she said why she was crying, but Nico’s mind always jumped to it was a cover-up and that something different had actually happened. 

So, he was extremely worried that there was a  _ reason  _ for Zoella not sleeping. Especially when the gods had it out for her.

But, he always tried to push those thoughts away. Chances are, she just wasn’t the best sleeper. All he had to do was keep reassuring himself of that. If the gods wanted to harm her, they would do it in a more obvious way. They were never ones to beat around the bush. If they wanted someone harmed, they would just flat-out do it. 

Nico literally face palmed himself as a way to slap his brain. He needed to stop thinking about this. He hated it when he started thinking about how the gods would try to harm her oneday. 

_ Shit, fuck. Nico. Stop.  _

He hated having free time, because that gave him a lot of time to sit and think. 

He decided to make pizza. It took thinking and time, meaning he would stop focusing on what may come in the future- and the prep would take about as long as Zoella would be sleeping, and then it would cook while she’s awake, and probably be done by lunch time, or even sooner. 

He was actually surprised with how on point his timing was. A few minutes after the pizza was in the oven and he was cleaning up the kitchen, Zoella started crying. Honestly, crying wasn’t even the word for it. She was screaming bloody-murder. 

Nico walked into her room and as soon as the light was on and he was in view, she calmed down a little, just as she always did. 

“Calm down, Zo, it’s alright,” Nico cooed as he kissed her forehead, smiling as she slowly started to relax. 

He walked over to the changing station and grabbed a diaper. He was getting better at changing diapers and he was pretty proud of himself for that. 

After her diaper was changed, he went to go make her a bottle figuring that she would probably be hungry now. While running the water a screen popped up in front of him, and he then saw his wonderful boyfriend on the other side.

“Nico!” He said cheerfully. Nico couldn’t help but smile back at him. Percy was looking at him with bright eyes. His hair was messy and disheveled, like he had been running his hands through it a lot, which was something the son of Poseidon did when he was thinking. 

“Hey,” He smiled, pulling the bottle out from under the water, and reaching over slightly to grab the rest of the things he needed to make the bottle. Which, in case you didn’t know, making a bottle with a baby in one hand was kind of difficult. 

“We’re gonna be done for the day in like an hour, and Annabeth wants to meet Zoella, so I just wanted to like- say something before bringing someone over,” He laughed, rubbing his eyes.

Nico was more than fine with seeing Annabeth again. “Alright, Zo just woke up so it’s perfect timing… oh! And I made pizza, so if y’all haven’t ate yet-”

“How can you say you made pizza so nonchalantly? Usually that’s hard to do,” Percy said, giving a slight chuckle.

Nico laughed. “I don’t know, I never knew it was, my mom used to make them all the time,” He had never really thought about it being a difficult thing to make.

Nico didn’t know how to handle the sweet look Percy was giving him. It didn’t even seem like the other knew he was looking at him that way and it was making Nico’s heart flutter. 

“Anyway, uh,” Nico said, clearing his throat, hoping his face wasn’t as red as he thought it was. “We’ll be waiting,” He said, bouncing Zoella in his arm, while shaking the bottle in his other hand. 

“Alrighty, they’re all coming back in now, so I guess I should go,”

“Okay, I’ll see you soon,”

“Yup-”

“Oh, my gods, is that Nico?” Came a voice that didn’t belong to Annabeth or Jason. 

“Uh, yes,” Percy said, smiling. Nico looked at the screen as Reyna came into view. 

“Nico,” She said, a small smile on her face. 

Nico smiled back. “Reyna,” 

“Gods, she’s gotten so big, hasn’t she?” She said, getting closer to the screen. 

“She has,” He said. And she really had, just ask his arms. They were getting quite the workout from carrying her all the time.

Nico looked down at Zoella and saw how she was now looking, eyes wide at the screen. She smiled, probably at the fact her dad was on the other side. At this, everyone made ‘awh’ noises, and Nico couldn’t help but laugh. Zoella was literally making some of the toughest people he knew, like Reyna, become soft for her.

Reyna was never one to say ‘Aww’ to anything. 

“I’m gonna go feed her now, I’ll see you all later, okay?”

“Alright,” Jason said, who had just come into view a few seconds earlier. “See ya,”

Nico smiled, he felt like it had been a second since he’d seen Jason. “Bye y’all, Zo, can you wave?” 

She just continued looking at the mist-screen in front of them. Nico did a little wave motion with his hand. “Say ‘buh-bye’” He laughed.

“BaBa,” She said, and slightly moved her hand. 

“Oh, my gods, she actually did it,” Nico laughed.

Percy’s smile grew even brighter. “Bye, Zozo,” He said, waving, probably on a ‘my-baby-just-said-bye-and-waved-to-me high. 

Now smiling because of the good reaction she got, Zoella said it again, waving even more. 

“Guys, look at her, she’s waving!” Percy smiled, talking to the people around him. “Look! She’s so cute, look at her little arm, oh my gods,” He said, one hand on his chest. “Bye, Zo,” He said, waving, and eventually having to wave through the screen.

Nico was surprised at how not shocked she was from people just randomly disappearing. She just kind of looked at the spot that they were previously for a few seconds before looking over at Nico, then at the bottle. 

“C’mon, pumpkin, let’s go eat.” He said, walking into his room and sitting on his bed. He positioned Zoella to a good position before putting the bottle in her mouth as she ate. Nico was happy with how much she was eating now, and about how little nectar she was needing to actually eat and stay healthy. It made him think things were looking up and they may stay there.

Zoella took her bottle easily and drank most of it. There was a little less than a fourth left, but that was usual for her after her nap. 

After burping her, he went to go clean out the bottle. She wasn’t exactly tired, but she did lay on his chest and have her eyes kind of half open. Nico couldn’t help but smile at how cute she truly was. 

He never really understood when people talked about that bond you had with your child. He never really imagined how someone could  _ actually  _ feel that way. But, he understood now. He knew he’d do absolutely anything for her.

After cleaning the bottle, he noticed the pizza was almost done. He didn’t really want to pull a hot pizza out of a hot oven with his child in his arms (for obvious reasons) so he went down into the living room and laid her down on a pad on the floor made of blankets. He knew the farthest she could get it maybe five feet from rolling over a bunch, but they had nothing harmful on their floor, so he was pretty sure she’d be safe. 

He hurried into the kitchen to pull out the pizza and place it on the stove-top so it could cool down. He went back into the living room and found Zoella had only rolled over once. “When you start crawling, we’re gonna have quite the problem on our hands,” He laughed. He bent down and picked her up, and moved to the couch, where he played with her there, bouncing her up and down, watching her smile grow bigger and bigger.

Before he knew it, Percy was home, Annabeth trailing behind him. 

Annabeth basically made a beeline for Zoella, and Nico couldn’t help but smile. He was thankful she really held no grudge and that she wanted to know Zoella. Nico handed over his daughter to the blonde. He loved Zoella, obviously, but he was kind of thankful to hand her away to Annabeth considering how tired his arm was getting. 

Percy went back into their room, having a stack of papers in his hand, then came out a few minutes later, without the papers. 

They all sat down and talked for a little while. Annabeth was honestly a natural with Zoella, and Zoella really seemed to like her. 

After talking for a while, they decided it was time to eat.

Annabeth didn’t trust herself to eat hot food with a baby in her arms, so she handed Zoella off to Percy. They all sat on the couch and ate their pizza, just catching up on what’s been going on. Apparently Camp Half Blood wasn’t doing too hot recently. 

Which is concerning. Usually when the gods are in a pissy mood they took it out on the demigods. Upon hearing this news, Percy and Nico both shot each other a nervous look. 

When they finished their food, Annabeth begged to have Zoella back. Percy laughed and handed her over. 

It had probably been an hour when Annabeth announced she was going to leave soon. She was playing with Zoella and put her hair across her lip to make a funny-looking moustache, one last little joke before she left. Zoella found it very entertaining and was looking at her with bright eyes and started clapping her hands.

And then she  _ laughed.  _ Both Percy and Nico looked at their daughter in complete shock. Annabeth, not knowing how big of a deal it was, laughed with her. “Do you like this?” She asked, puckering her lips and wiggling her nose to move her hair around.

Zoella let out more giggles. 

“None of us have long enough hair, that’s not fair,” Percy laughed.

Annabeth looked at him with confusion so Nico decided to explain. “She hasn’t laughed before,” He said, laughing as well at the situation.

“I got her to do her first laugh?” Annabeth smiled. She looked back down at Zoella, and put on a different voice. “You think I’m funny?” She said, smiling down at Zoella and tickling her tummy- to which she laughed at. 

Do you know how much Nico tickled her tummy? Answer: A lot. Apparently he just didn’t do it right. 

He just laughed and took in the wonderful sound of Zoella’s first laughs. He felt so content with everything in his life right now. He hoped it stayed this way for a while. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long, i swear twitter was like ‘wow, bai has little time to write this month? Let’s do like two writing challenges back to back to take up all her writing time!’ SO YEAH. but it’s over now jhdskhfdk 
> 
> Also 5k words? That’s rare for this story sfdhsjkfdshj hope you enjoyeddddd :p


	6. splashing about

Nico had thought Zoella had been clingy before all of this, but hell, it had gotten so much worse. Well, not worse. Just different. It was less when she was sleeping and more just … always. She never wanted to be without one of them now, rather it was Nico or Percy, she just wanted to be seen with them. 

According to Nico’s baby books, which, the more he raised a kid, the more he realized those aren’t completely accurate- but, even still, according to them, Zoella was gaining ‘object permanence’ so now she liked it when they were there in her sight, and pretty much hated it when they weren’t. 

But, really, it wasn’t that much different. Just laying her down on the floor was not really an option anymore. 

However, Zoella wasn’t the only one having problems with separation. Nico was currently at the training camp and that meant he hadn’t seen his baby and he was extremely worried. Not because he didn’t think Percy couldn’t take care of her. Despite his stupid moments, he was actually very smart and capable. However, he was just a worrier, so not knowing what was going on with Zo was stressing him out. 

Also, teaching? Kind of crazy. These kids were like- seven through ten. Which, sure, they were now competent enough to learn basics, but they didn’t really listen. Most of them were there because their parents were worried that there would be another attack. 

Some of them wanted to be there. There were these two siblings, a ten year old girl, and a seven year old boy. He saw him and Bianca in them and that was… scary. Then, there was a 9 year old girl, she wasn’t exactly super happy to be there, but she was just good at everything they had gone over so far. 

Then there were two more boys- who Nico thought they were only friends considering they were close in age, too close to be siblings- and didn’t give him twin vibes, but were very close. They also seemed like they had begged their parents to let them attend. 

They also were very interested in Nico. ‘Can you really shadow travel?’ ‘Can you show us?’ ‘Did you really bring that really big statue across the world?’ ‘How was Tartarus?’ ‘How’d you get out?’ ‘Is your dad really Pluto- or Hades?’ ‘Were you really locked in a jar once?’

He wanted to answer those questions but at the time didn’t want to get into that. Because, well, they were like nine. So, he always gave them the dumbed down answers. “Yes, no, yeah- but I had help, not great, don’t wanna talk about that, yes, yup.”

What else was he  _ supposed  _ to say to all that. 

“Alright everybody, that was…” He thought about a word to say. He didn’t want to lie to these children, but ‘fantastic’ was not a word to describe their work for the day. “... great,” He ended up settling with. “But the day’s come to an end, I’ll see you all Monday,” He laughed awkwardly as one of the other kids decided to swing another shot at the dummy. “And we’ll introduce archery, so that’ll be fun…” He said, trying his best to convince the kids it would be.

Despite having one, and thinking he was doing pretty good with handling her, he actually wasn’t the best with children. “But let’s all clean up because I have a daughter I’ve been dying to get back to,” He said, starting to grab the broom to sweep up the mess of hay that had been created with the amount of sword stabs the dummy had gotten.

Soon all the kids piled out except for one. She never left until Nico left. It was kind of weird but Nico never said anything. It was the same girl that was good at everything, but always acted like she didn’t want to be there.    
  
Pick a side. Do you want to be here or do you not?    
  


“Do you want any help?” She asked, sitting in one of the chairs in the corner. 

Her voice shocked Nico. Usually she didn’t talk. “Um… you’re good, don’t worry about it,” he said, smiling a bit as he swept everything into a power. 

She didn’t respond, just gave a slight nod of her head.

There were a few more moments of silence. He had finished cleaning up the straw and dumped it outside. He walked back in and started to clean up the dummy-swords. 

“Did you take this job so your daughter could learn sooner?” She finally spoke up.

She was nine, why did she have so many questions. Well, maybe that’s  _ why  _ she had so many questions. Nine year olds tend to do that. 

“Um… no, it didn’t cross my mind. She’s only eight months old, now.” He said, strapping everything to the rack on the wall. “Maybe once she’s slightly older we’d take her to the other camp and she could learn basic things… but we kind of want to keep her… away from all of that.” Why was he sharing this information with her? She really didn’t need to know, but she asked, so he might as well just explain. 

She nodded. “I think you should,”

He almost said the thought he had been thinking this whole time:  _ bitch, you’re nine. shut up.  _ But, he didn’t because that was considered rude. 

And despite being nine, she was probably right. They want to keep Zoella away from all of this. But, he knows that’s not gonna keep the gods away. Keeping it from her would just make her unprepared for if or  _ when  _ it actually happened. 

“Oh.” Was all he said, because what else would he say. “We’ll think about it.. But for now, she can hardly walk. I doubt she’d be able to wield a weapon.”

The girl nodded, then silently got up, and walked out the door.  _ God she was a strange one.  _

He quickly finished up the rest of the cleaning and set up everything he’d need for the next lesson. As soon as it was hastily finished and finally put together, he hurried out of the building to make his way home to his boyfriend and daughter.

When he got there, he finally felt recharged. Despite the fact Zoella was screaming - don’t worry, they were happy screams - and there was music blaring, he still felt perfectly calm. 

“Percy?” He called out as he shut the door behind him, rolling his eyes at the fact ‘Baby Shark’ was the song blaring. “Where are you?” He walked deeper into the house, though his question was eventually answered when he saw Zoella (and Percy) both covered in green baby mush, singing along to the obnoxious song.    
  


What Nico would guess was going on was Percy had been trying to feed Zoella actually food… which she did not like, for the record. However, Percy being Percy decided to not care and make it all a game. 

Now the kitchen, high chair, table, and both of them were covered in food.  _ Nico hadn’t even thought that there was that much baby food in one container.  _ “What in-” He said, starting to laugh. 

“Nico!” Percy called out, lifting both his hands, one of the hands holding a spoon. When his hand flew into the air, the spoon flicked off more food, this one landing all the way over on the island counter.    
  
Zoella just managed an excited scream as she clapped her hands. 

Nico smiled and walked closer to the two of them. “I’m gone for eight hours, and you two managed to make such a mess,” He laughed, looking around the kitchen and really taking in the pigsty it had become. 

Percy also started looking around. “I am… sorry.” He said in a tone that showed he also hadn’t realized how messy it had gotten. 

“ _ Sure  _ you are,” He laughed, pulling one of the table chairs over to them to sit down. He stuck his hand out and smiled as Zoella grabbed it and shook it around. 

Percy laughed. “I’ll clean it up,” He said, not making any move to work on it now. He had time later, for now he was just going to sit with Nico. He wasn’t used to not having him around all day. 

Nico hummed as he continued letting Zoella play with his hand. Percy couldn’t help but smile at the scene in front of him. Things were starting to slow down and sort themselves out. Things were getting okay, and it was visible on Nico’s face- and that’s what made him happier than anything. 

“How was your day?” Percy asked, placing the food-covered spoon down on the table. 

Nico shrugged and looked over to Percy, his hand still extended. “It was fine. I’ve come to realize our kid is pretty much the only kid that doesn’t bother me,” He said, laughing a bit. 

“Sounds like you,” He teased, leaning over and kissing his forehead. 

Nico let out a breathy laugh. “It does, doesn’t it?” He retreated his hand once Zoella lost interest and looked down at it. It was now covered in green muck. “Why are we feeding her this shiiiiiuff.” He said, stopping himself from swearing. “It looks disgusting.”

Percy rached behind him and grabbed a rag and handed it to him. “I don’t know, babies like it,”

Nico’s face dropped. “Oh yes,” He said sarcastically, looking over at their daughter, who had more food on her body than she probably had gotten in her mouth. “She loves it.”

“Our baby is just different,” Percy said, reaching for a reason as to why he was still right. 

Nico laughed and stood up, carefully grabbing Zoella under the arms and pulling her up. He sat her on his hip, grimacing a bit when the food got on his clothes. “I’m gonna go clean her up, you have fun with the kitchen,” He said, walking down the hall, glancing one last time at the dirty kitchen. 

“Thanks! Love you, too!” He called out, chuckling a bit. 

“Love you!” Nico laughed, opening the bathroom door. He grabbed Zoella’s weird bath-seat thing and sat that in the tub and turned on the water, still holding Zoella close to him. 

Once the water had gotten to a good height and temperature. He placed her carefully in the seat and kneeled down on the side of the tub. He reached over and turned off the faucet. 

Their bathroom had really just started to scream “we have a kid!” Toys were hanging in a holder on the wall, playful loofahs with animal faces tied onto the faucet, childish shampoos that smelt  _ so  _ fake it was ridiculous. It was Zoella’s house; they were just living in it. 

He grabbed one of the many toys and handed them to her, watching as her face lit up a bit. “You are so dirty,” He said, mainly to himself because obviously the toddler wasn’t going to respond. He reached over to grab one of the sponges to rinse her off. She seemed pretty unbothered by that. 

She usually doesn’t like the icky stuff floating in the water  _ after  _ she’s cleaned off, but Nico couldn’t blame her for that. 

She grabbed a random toy floating in the water and held it up, pushing it towards Nico’s face. He backed his face up in shock but then began to nod as she randomly babbled. 

“Yes, I know,” He laughed, smiling at her as he continued to clean her off. She brought the toy to her mouth and began to chew on it. The toy was too big to choke on, so he figured taking it from her would do nothing. 

She was still babbling on when Percy walked into the room, he himself no longer covered in food either. He went down next to Nico and kneeled down, sticking his hand across the bathtub to start fiddling with a duck that was floating in the water. 

He then leaned his head on Nico. The son of Hades couldn’t help but smile at him as he did that. 

“I missed you,” Percy practically whined, sticking his finger in the water and sending some of it a way, watching as Zoella got crazy excited at that. She has always loved when he played with the water, she really thought it was the coolest thing. 

Nico smiled and turned his head, putting down the sponge, planting a kiss on the other's temple. “I missed you, too,” Nico said softly. 

He could go on a rant about Percy and how weird their relationship was, how much they meant to each other, but that can wait for another time. 

Right now, all that mattered was Zoella splashing her hands in the water excitedly as Percy moved the water around.

Percy then flicked some water her way and she started laughing, bouncing up and down in the bath chair. “Look she loves it!” Percy said, continuing to do it. 

Zoella was laughing - which she did more than the last few months, but it was still rare. She was splashing her hands in the water, putting Nico in the splash zone, but considering how he was going to take a shower afterwards anyway, he didn’t really care.

Then all the water in the tub splashed out onto the floor.

You know, like it does when you live with demigods.

And you’d think Zoella would have cried, like normal babies would.

Zoella has never been a normal baby though. And she didn’t cry. 

“Percy!” Nico said, now covered in water. 

The son of Poseidon took his head off Nico’s shoulder. “What?” he asked, equally as shocked. Hell, he didn’t even have time to push the water away from him, how was he supposed to know that was going to happen. 

“What do you mean ‘what’ what the Hades did you just do?” He said, Zoella still laughing and splashing away as the water fell back into the tub and sloshed around. 

“I didn’t do anything,”

“So was there just an earthquake?” Nico asked. 

“Maybe!”

“Are you sure you didn’t do it?”

Percy laughed. “I’ve been alive for nearly 23 years now and you’re trying to tell me I don’t know how to control water?”

Just as Nico was about to say something, Zoella laughed and placed her palm on a certain point of the water - and the liquid flew all the way across the bathroom. Nico’s face fell into a shocked expression. “Holy fu-”

“Frick.” Percy interrupted, stopping Nico from saying something  _ much less _ child appropriate. 

“She can-” Nico started.

“She just-” Percy stuttered. 

“Oh thank the gods!” Nico sat up, water falling off of him as he stood up, and clasped his hands together. His tense expression changed to relief. “That means she’s probably not gonna have to deal with all the skeletons, and spirits, and stuff!”

Percy was pretty excited about this new discovery too, but he also remembered what it was like when  _ he  _ was a child and found out he could be doing these things. “Our house is gonna have so much water damage,” He laughed, still crouching down in the newly-made puddle of water. 

“I am so perfectly okay with that,” Nico said, kneeling back down by the bath. There could be a bunch of reasons why he was happy about this. 

But, the main one being, he felt the less like him she was, the better. He didn’t even mean that in an entirely self-deprecating way. He really didn’t have the best genes. Before he knew it was possible for him to have kids, he was pretty alright with the fact he would have never had biological children, because it was probably for the best. No kid deserved his genes. 

Plus he felt like he had weird bone structure. 

Percy laughed, not knowing that Nico was having a whole ass inner monologue. 

“You’ll watch her while I grab some … towels? How do you even clean  _ this  _ much water off the floor?”

Percy laughed. “Yeah, you were right… just lots of towels.”

Nico rolled his eyes. “Your poor mother,” 

“I know,” He said, shifting a bit to get closer to Zoella, though he knew he really didn’t need to be worried if she fell anymore. One time, when he was a kid, he fell into a pool while his mom was talking to the people about signing him up for lessons. 

He basically floated up. Really had a Moana moment and he didn’t even know it.

But, he still didn’t exactly want her to fall, so he still kept his arm out. 

Nico came back a few moments later, holding half their towels in his hands. He tossed them down trying to absorb it as much as possible. “Oh gods,” He mumbled as they instantly got soaked.

Percy reached over and grabbed Zoella’s baby towel that was hanging up from the rack. He picked her up and wrapped her in the towel, carefully holding her. “half the waters out the tub now anyway,” He laughed and kissed her forehead. 

“I’ll put it back in.” Nico laughed picking up one of the  _ many  _ soaked towels, holding it over the bathtub, and squeezing the water out. 

Percy snorted. “You’re ridiculous,” He laughed, keeping the towel around Zoella as he stood her up on the sink counter and jumped her up and down. 

Nico smiled a bit at himself. He never saw himself as funny, so whenever he managed to make someone laugh, especially when that someone was Percy, he felt pretty good. “It’s less wasteful!” He reasoned, keeping up with the joke. 

Percy just laughed as he kissed Zoella’s head, watching as she watched herself in the mirror. 

Nico looked at the wet towels now on the floor and picked them up just to toss them in the new emptied tub. “I’ll grab those later.” He was too tired to have to clean up the water trail this would leave if he ran them to the laundry room. 

“I’ll get them tomorrow before I leave,” Percy said. Oh yeah. Nico forgot. Percy would be going to Camp Half Blood for a few weeks. 

“No, I’ve got it,” Nico said, considering Percy was going to have to wake up extremely early in the morning to hop ass on a horse, he felt it was the least he could do. 

Though, Percy just shook his head. “It won’t be a problem. Plus, I’mma be up first so…” He stretched out the word. “You can’t tell me what to do, because you’ll be asleep.”

“You’re ridiculous.” Nico said, rolling his eyes and joining Percy by the sink. They were both soaked in water but at this point in their lives, so much worse things had happened to them that water wasn’t really an issue. 

However it would make a mess on the floor. Can’t win them all. 

“I know.” Percy said with a goofy smile on his face. Nico smiled back and leaned his body against Percy’s. Nico really didn’t want him to go tomorrow. He hated the idea of being without him, especially for so long. 

After getting bored of seeing herself stand in the mirror, Zo began to cry. Percy picked her up normally and they all walked out of the bathroom, straight to the nursery, still dripping water, but honestly not as much as Nico thought.

They put a diaper on her and started to put her to bed. 

Nico went and turned on the night light - which truly did wonders for Zoella. She really was afraid of the dark. Percy put the pacifier in her mouth and she got quiet, breathing softly as her wide eyes started to close.

Nico smiled and felt Percy wrap his arms around him. 

“You know, I’m sure everyone over there would love to meet her.”

It took Nico a moment to understand what he was getting at, but when it hit him, he raised his hopes, but he knew it didn’t seem possible. 

“I’m sure they would… but…”

Percy hummed and Nico could feel him nod. “I know.”

Bringing a child that was wanted dead by the gods across the country, to a camp  _ far  _ more dangerous, wasn’t exactly a good idea. It wasn’t safe at all. 

“I don’t think there has ever been a child at that camp.” Nico said quietly, watching her drift off. “Like ever.”

Percy laughed and nodded. “You’re probably right. It’s probably for a reason, too.”

“Yeah,” Nico sighed. “... Unless…”

“Unless..?”

“We really probably shouldn’t… but once she’s there… it could be safe…”

“It could.”

“We would make it safe.”

“We would.”

“We shouldn’t though…”

Percy sighed. “Yeah… we probably shouldn’t.”

“It’d be safe if we drove though… wouldn’t it, you’d have to get there faster so you’d have your little horse dude-“

“He has a name!” Percy defended. 

“Sorry.” Nico said, not sounding entirely sorry considering he really hated that horse. “But we shouldn’t.”

Percy nodded. “And we won’t.” He kissed Nico’s cheek. “But I’m going to miss you.”

Nico turned around and smiled. “I’m going to miss you, too.” He lifted himself up and kissed Percy on his lips. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.” He said, leaning his forehead against Nico’s once the kiss broke apart. 

They stayed like that for a moment longer before eventually they had to head to bed, after all. Percy had somewhere to be in the morning. 

  
  
  



	7. complications

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the angst has to come eventually.

When Nico woke up in the morning, he was alone. He sighed. Just because he knew it was coming didn’t make it any easier. He knew Percy had to go, but it didn’t stop it from sucking. However, he didn’t have time to sulk. He had a crying baby to attend to. 

This was the first time he would be alone with her for a long period of time, and he knew he could do it, but it would be a lot more stressful for sure. 

“Hey baby,” Nico said, turning on the light. “Goodmorning,” He said as she slowly started calming down. He leaned down into her crib and picked her up, holding her close to his chest. “Did you sleep well, hunny?” He asked softly, kissing her temple. He didn’t care if he wasn’t going to get a response, he still wanted to ask. 

He walked out of her room and straight into the kitchen. “Thank you for sleeping so good,” He said, once again, knowing she wouldn’t respond. “You shocked me,” He laughed as he reached for the bottle. “I don’t think you've ever slept that nicely.”

He made her bottle with the special formula and went to sit on the couch. Mornings with Zoella were his favorite, especially after she slept well. She was always so calm and would cuddle up to him as she ate. It was something Nico would always remember. 

Half way done with her bottle, Nico heard something from the kitchen. Percy’s voice. 

“Goodmorning,” came his tired voice. Nico carefully sat up and walked to the sink.

He smiled at him and pulled up a barstool. “Goodmorning,” He said, happy to see Percy’s face, but also wanting to tell him to go to sleep. He looked like he… well, had to wake up before sunrise and take a flying horse all the way to a very chaotic camp. “How is everyone?”

“Good. Jase isn’t here yet,” He said. Nico noticed the familiar cabin behind Percy. It wasn’t the Poseidon cabin. 

It was the Hades. 

He chose not to mention it, but he smiled and his face said enough for Percy to know he noticed. 

“Yeah, yeah,” Percy rolled his eyes. “Shut up.”

“I didn’t say anything,” Nico said, a cheeky smile on his face.

“How are you though, is everything going alright?” Percy asked, clearly wanting to change the subject. 

Nico smiled. “Well, I woke up about thirty minutes ago, so not much can go wrong at this moment.”

Percy laughed. “That’s true… what time is it over there?”

“Seven thirty.” Nico answered. “Zo slept in.” 

“Did she really?” Percy asked, pure shock in his voice. “When was the last time she did that?”

“Like, never.” Nico laughed, noticing how Zoella grew more disinterested in her bottle considering Percy was on the screen. She lifted her head up and blinked widely at him. 

Percy smiled at her and waved. “Hey Zobear.” He said, and she smiled at that and reached out for him. 

Nico carefully grabbed her hand to keep her from accidentally swiping him away. 

Zoella was confused about why Percy wasn’t actually there, but apart from her sleeping patterns, she was a good kid. Nico just held her close and she stayed quiet. 

“Oh, um.” Percy said, looking out the window. Nico assumed he was about to say he had to go. “By the way,” He said, his eyes back to Nico. “Will came up to me, and I’m confused. Last we left off he uh…”

“Really didn’t like you,” Nico finished for him. 

“Yeah. Like hated me, but he just comes up to me, and shakes my hand.”

Nico blinked for a few moments, processing this information. “He… shook your hand?”

“Yeah. No words. No nothing. Just… shook my hand and nodded.”

Nico was still processing and let out a confused laugh. “Well, better than… a punch or something…?” 

Having Will brought up was kind of weird. Nico loved Percy. He planned to spend the rest of his life with him, but Will and him had ended so suddenly. Sure, it had almost been over a year now, but Will was just an awkward subject for him. 

No matter how happy he was now, he felt bad for what he did. 

“I guess so, everyone was very shocked. Annabeth was next to me and was just… flabbergasted.”

“Ooh,” Nico said, readjusting Zoella in his arms. “Using big words.”

“I feel like you’re making fun of me.” He laughed. 

“Me? No. Never.” Nico laughed, extremely sarcastically. 

Percy was about to make another comment but there was a knock on the door. 

“That’s weird.” Nico mumbled, but stood up nonetheless. “I’mma go get that,” He said, standing up. “It’s probably nothing,” He said, putting down the almost empty bottle and carefully holding Zoella as he walked up to the door. 

He opened the door and before he could even register who was at his door, the person was in his house. 

“Fuck fuck fuck.” They swore. Nico shortly realized it was Jason, who was supposed to be at Camp Half Blood with Percy and Annabeth. “Guys I think this is bad.” He said, turning to Nico. “Scratch that - I know it’s bad.”

“What’s going on?” Nico asked, wanting to calm Jason down with some form of contact, but he couldn’t considering he had a baby in his hands. “Breathe, man.” 

“Neeks.” He said, getting serious. “I have a daughter.” 

“What the fuck?!” Nico said, forgetting his whole trying not to swear around Zoella thing. “Where?”

“Apparently she’s a little under a year old.” He mumbled. “Right when me and Piper split, I… I did not smart things, some of those being hookups.” He said, sitting down on the couch. “And now I have a baby - who I know nothing about - I’m not entirely sure who’s the mother - and I feel like that’s not a good thing.”

“Where is she?”

“Reyna has her. She wanted to do a check up, and I needed to tell you and Percy first, because…”

“Because if we somehow had a kid…” Nico said, putting everything together. 

“And I somehow had a kid…” Jason continued, helping Nico come to the conclusion he had moments ago in the infirmary.

“Around the same time…”

“Despite the chances…”

“There’s most likely…” Nico gulped. “A prophecy.”

Jason nodded. 

“Fuck.” Nico said, rushing over to where he had previously been talking with Percy. “Perce.” He said, not being able to sit down. “Did you hear any of that.”

“...No…” He said, looking extremely concerned at Nico’s distressed state. 

Jason came into view. “I had a kid.”

“With who? I thought you said you were taking a break from hookups, how’d you manage to get someone pregnant.”

“This was before that.”

“You made this promise like a while ago.”

“Yeah. I know.” He said, hoping his friend would get it. 

“Holy shit…” He said, obviously also throwing out the no swearing rule. “So… like the baby’s… born?”

“Yeah,” Nico said, his voice weak. 

“No…” Percy said, leaning against the bunks. “No.” He repeated. 

Jason simply stared off for a few more moments before standing up straight and walking out of their house. Nico didn’t pay him any mind, looking down at the ground. 

“We… There’s going to be a prophecy.” Nico said grimly.

“We’ll stop it.” Percy said, but there’s no way he believed it. Nico could hear it in his voice.

Nico nodded his head in agreement, but he knew that wasn’t true. You can’t change prophecies. It doesn’t work out. It never had. 

“I’m gonna go find him.” Nico said after a moment. “I don’t want him doing anything stupid,” Nico mumbled. They mumbled a quick “i love you” to each other, before Nico waved through the screen. 

Zoella was upset for a moment about Percy being gone, but Nico handed her a toy and she calmed down a bit. 

He locked up the house before making his way to the infirmary where he assumed at least Reyna would still be. He didn’t take time to look around like he usually did, his mind was too concerned about everything going on. 

When he got to the infirmary, he was proven wrong, Jason was there, and Reyna was nowhere to be seen. 

Jason was sitting in one of the chairs with his daughter in his hands. Nico walked up to him. “She’s cute,” He smiled, looking down at the baby in his hands.

He smiled weakly, clearly worried. “Yeah…” He looked up at Nico, then back down at the girl in his arms. “Reyna said she’s probably around six months.” Jason sighed. “And that’s all I know about her.” Nico looked at the sleeping girl in Jason’s arm. He hadn’t been lying when he said it, she was a cute kid. “I’m gonna find Rach,” He said, looking over at Nico. “And hopefully, she can tell me a bit about her… like her Birthday… maybe her mother…”

Nico could tell Jason felt bad. Despite it being a hookup, Jason wasn’t someone who was a fuck em and leave em type. He probably would have liked to be there throughout the pregnancy and the first six months. 

“It’s not your fault.” Nico said, shifting Zoella in his arms and placing his hand on Jason’s shoulder. “She didn’t tell you.” 

“Everyone I had been with during that time…” He said, brushing some hair behind his baby’s ear. “I had to see on pretty much a daily basis. Except for two.” He said. Nico figured the poor guy was thinking out loud, so the best the son of Hades could do was listen. “So I tried to find both of them.” He looked over at Nico. “The first one was sweet as could be, and  _ was  _ pregnant, seven months.” He sighed. “Not with my baby, thankfully.” He quickly explained. “So it couldn’t be her.”

“So, then you know who it is.”

“That would be too easy.” He sighed. “I tried to get into contact with her. Her number was deactivated, her house wasn’t even there anymore, and nobody even knew of her.” 

Nico cursed under his breath. That was even worse. That meant, chances are, the mother wasn’t a mortal.

“We’ll get it figured out.” Nico sighed, trying to stay calm, despite how worried he was getting. “Until then, you can stay with me.” He offered. “Plus, you may want some help. Saving the world is one thing, raising a kid’s another.” Nico said, chuckling grimly. 

“I can’t accept that -”

“Jason.” Nico said firmly. “You’ve done so much for me, it’s the least I can do.” He reasoned. 

“Are you sure?”

“Positive,” Nico smiled. “So let’s just work on getting her out of here so we can leave and get situated. She’s still smaller than Zo, so she can use the bassinet.” He said, already figuring out some of the sleeping situations. 

“Reyna said she’ll be back soon.” Jason said. “Thank you.”

“You don’t have to thank me,” Nico said, wanting to give him a smile but he couldn’t. Shit was about to get bad, he could feel it. 

Zoella wasn’t even a year old… 

As Jason had said, Reyna eventually did come back and she gave the two a bittersweet smile. “She’s healthy.” She said, wasting no time. “She’s definitely yours,” She said, and Jason smiled a bit. That did make Nico feel pretty good. Despite everything, Jason would be a good dad. “And, that’s all I know.” She concluded. “I have people looking, I’ve contacted Annabeth but she’s busy at Camp Half Blood.” She said. 

“We were supposed to be starting constructions on multiple monuments.” Jason said, knowing how serious it was. They had a promise to keep. 

“Yes, well, Annabeth is a very talented girl.” Reyna said, obviously proud of the girl she had grown  _ pretty  _ close to these past few months. “She can handle it.”

Jason knew that, but it made him feel guilty for leaving so much work on the already stressed blonde. 

“Until we learn more, it’s best for you to just get adjusted.” Reyna said, squeezing Jason’s shoulder. 

Jason nodded and stood up, wrapping his hands around the girl, obviously scared he was going to drop her. Nico couldn’t blame him, he always was afraid of dropping Zoella. 

With one last nod to Reyna, Jason dismissed himself out of the infirmary. Nico gave her a worried smile and followed after him. Nico noticed how Jason was clearly in a daze, not being able to process all the information. Once again, Nico couldn’t blame him. 

~.o.0.o.~

“Do you think you know what you’re gonna name her?” Nico asked, as they walked up the sidewalk to the front door and he unlocked it. 

“Not really, but yeah.” Jason said, laughing a bit. “I feel like it’s on the tip of my tongue, but my brain hasn’t caught up yet,” He said, looking down at the still sleeping girl. “My brain isn’t catching up on a lot of things right now,” He said, laughing darkly. “But, yeah. I think she already has one, but I just gotta think about it.”

Nico nodded. “Makes sense.” He said, swinging the door open and allowing Jason to walk in. “If you want to put her down,” Nico said, “The basinet’s still set up in her room.” He said, walking that way as Jason followed. 

“Yeah, Okay, thank you.”

“Of course,” Nico said, smiling as she opened Zoella’s room. With her tucked securely in one arm, he pulled the bassinet out of the corner. 

Jason placed her gently in it and smiled weakly. “Do I just… leave her…?”

“You don’t have to, but yeah.” Nico said, making his way out of the room. “It’s up to you,” He sighed. “There’s a chair right there, you can move it if you want,” Nico pointed to the rocking chair in the corner of Zoella’s room. 

“Okay… thank you… I think I’m gonna stay with her.”

“Okay,” Nico said. “Come find me if you need anything,” He said softly, before walking out of the room, closing the door behind him. 

Now, left alone… well not alone, but Zoella didn’t count, he sighed. He wanted to cry. He really did. Instead, he took a deep breath and walked into his and Percy’s room. 

This was bad.

So, so bad. 


End file.
